Here is this week's dose of Fundoo Fridays!
Have a great weekend, blogdosts :)
- In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry said: "They’ll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." Only a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, Perry hit the first and only home run of his career.
- Shampoo was first marketed in the United States in 1930 by John Breck, who was the captain of a volunteer fire department.
- At the end of the Beatles’ song "A Day in the Life," an ultrasonic whistle audible only to dogs was recorded specially by Paul McCartney for his Shetland sheepdog. No wonder your beagle loves the Beatles!
- Apple co founder Steve Wozniak earned money in college by selling "blue boxes" to other students. A blue box attached to a pay phone created the proper signals to allow a user to make free phone calls.
- Gorillas do not know how to swim, and they sleep about 14 hours a day.
- Elvis Presley made only one television commercial an ad for "Southern Maid Doughnuts" that ran in 1954.
- Goldfish lose their color if they are kept in a dim light or are placed in a body of running water, such as a stream. They remain gold when kept in a pond or in a bowl with adequate illumination.
- Male monkeys lose the hair on their heads in the same manner men do.
- Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, was originally an instructor of deaf children and invented the telephone to help his deaf wife and mother to hear.
- Camel’s-hair brushes are not made of camel’s hair.They were invented by a man named Camel.
- One alternate title that had been considered, but then discarded, for NBC’s hit Friends was Insomnia Cafe.
You all hate me, I know. And you have every reason to. After all, I have ignored this space for so long now. And these once-in-a-blue-moon posts with useless information will never suffice. Hang on, blogdosts, I am trying my best to get...uhhh spring back!
Bear with me just some more time....
Here's your next dose of Fundoo Fridays...
- Dr. Samuel A. Mudd treated the leg of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. His actions produced the expression "his name is Mudd," signifying utter disgrace.
- With U.S. trademark No. 2,347,676, the sad emoticon ":-(" gets the same protection as a corporate logo or any similar intellectual property. Although seen on millions of e-mails, the mark is now officially owned by Despair- a "de-motivational" company that sells humorous posters about futility, failure, and depression to "pessimists, losers, and underachievers!
- Boxing was the first sport to be filmed. Thomas A. Edison filmed a boxing match between Jack Cushing and Mike Leonard in 1894.
- Basketball is a famous American sport invented by a Canadian who was working at a YMCA in the U.S.
- According to manufacturer Spalding, the average life span of an NBA basketball is 10,000 bounces.
- Although only 9 inches tall, an adult roadrunner can keep pace with a human sprinter.
- A kangaroo mother holds a reserve embryo inside of her after her first baby has crawled into her pouch.This serves as an emergency back-up baby, should the first one die prematurely.
- In 1982, young Sarah Michelle Gellar acted in the first commercial ever to mention a competitor by name. For Burger King, she claimed that the burgers of Burger King’s competitor were "smaller." McDonald’s sued her as well as Burger King. In the same commercial she claimed, "I only eat at Burger King." After that, Gellar couldn't eat at a McDonald’s unless she was in disguise.
- Koalas and humans are the only animals with unique fingerprints. Koala prints cannot be distinguished from human fingerprints. Luckily, few koalas pursue a life of crime.
- The footprints left by the Apollo astronauts will not erode since there is no wind or water on the Moon. They should last at least 10 million years.
- Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney sang under the alias Apollo C. Vermouth.
Happy weekend, blogdosts!
It's almost a month since I wrote something and even now, I don't seem to have anything to write! Yet, to ignore this space for too long lurks on my conscience. So, I thought I'll share some more of the 'Useless Knowledge' updates I get :). And add it as a regular feature to my blog...under
Fundoo Fridays!!! What say,
blogdosts? Liked the idea?
The concept of this would be to post anything which qualifies the following parameters:
- The post could be of pictures, words etc.
- The content should not overwhelm the reader in any way.
- It should prepare or gear them up for the upcoming weekend.
- Humor will work best.
So here goes my first update on 'Fundoo Fridays'. Would love to see you taking this up too!
- Bears can easily overtake even the fastest Olympic sprinter.
- Ben Franklin wanted the turkey, not the eagle, to be the U.S. national symbol. He considered the eagle a "bird of bad moral character" because it lives "by sharping and robbing."
- Australian scientists have identified some species of baby spiders that bite off the limbs of their mothers and slowly dine on them over a period of weeks. Researchers hypothesize that this maternal sacrifice keeps the young from eating one another.
- The human tongue registers bitter tastes 10,000 times more strongly than sweet tastes. And that’s the bitter truth!
- A cat’s jaw can’t move sideways.
- Albert Einstein never learned how to drive a car.
- On the psychology front, while you may know that agoraphobia is the fear of leaving home, so does everyone else. Replace that Useful Knowledge with a phobia that’s far more common - the fear of returning home, No, it’s not called homophobia; it’s called nostophobia. Lots of authors suffer from nostophobia, especially the fear of returning home and having to write a book chapter before their publisher asks for the advance back.
- A kangaroo cannot jump if its tail is lifted off the ground. It needs its tail for pushing off.
- Gatorade got its name from the Gators, the University of Florida football team who were the first to test it.
- Beethoven poured cold water over his head when he sat down to compose music, believing that it stimulated his brain’s creative process.
- Not that he was immature, but Napoleon concocted his battle strategies in a sandbox.
So much for this Friday. Take care, blogdosts! Have a great weekend!
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